Pumpkin Curry

I warned you about all the pumpkin posts that were going to happen this week. Pumpkin soup yesterday, pumpkin curry today, and more pumpkin tomorrow. Halloween is three days away for goodness sake! Y'all know me and holidays, they must be celebrated to the fullest.

This curry is amazing.  Like really really amazing. Kathleen back me up here (she had the luxury of joining me for dinner).  I'm a huge curry advocate. Throw the word pumpkin into the recipe and I'm sold. What I love about this recipe is how thick the pumpkin makes it. My past experience with making curry has always left me with a really soupy consistency. I can never get it as thick and creamy as the restaurants, until now. 

One of my friends from work showed me this recipe. We are both equally pumpkin obsessed and love coming in to work to show each other what we made for dinner the night before. I added chicken to mine but you could easily swap out for veggies or tofu. Serve over basmati rice and garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds and lots of cilantro. I recently purchased a rice cooker and it is kind of the best thing ever. I'm looking for any excuse to use it. For $20 you can get perfect sticky rice, fluffy quinoa and you can even use it like a slow cooker.

Pumpkin Curry adapted from
A Beautiful Mess
serves 2-3

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 leek, halved and thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken, tofu or veggies (broccoli, red or green bell pepper, baby corn, pumpkin etc.)
1 cup basmati rice
cilantro and pumpkin seeds (pepitas) to serve

Directions:
Cook the rice according to the packaged instructions. Easy rule of thumb is one cup rice to one cup water. 
Mince the garlic, finely chop the onion and thinly slice the leek. Heat the oil over medium heat and sauté the garlic, onion and leek until soft and fragrant. About 3-4 minutes. Add the coconut milk, pumpkin puree and all the spices except the salt and pepper. Whisk together and cook over medium heat until everything is warmed through and thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add more of any of the spices if you wish. It's up to your taste buds. Once you get the flavor you like, stir in the shredded chicken. Serve the curry with rice and topped with pepitas and chopped cilantro. 

Annie